A conversation I had with a friend had me thinking! They're a *huge* **Left 4 Dead 2** fan. We played it a ton back in the day together. When **Darktide** went on sale recently, he bought it and played for a while. After he hit level 29 or something like that, he hit me up and said "eh I'm not feeling it, there's not really an endgame." Huh? What? Bwa? Listen. I love me an [[The Appeal of Grind Games|endgame]] grind. Sometimes the fun of a game is its endgame. But I think that should be the exception, not the rule! The endgame of **Darktide** is that you shoot hordes, because - and this might come as a shock to you - it's a horde game where you shoot hordes. Why do you play games nowadays? Really stop and ask yourself this. Why do you need a gear treadmill? Why would you not play a game because it doesn't have an endgame? **L4D2** has about 30 levels in it, with zero "progression systems" and zero procedural generation. We played it for *1000s of hours* for the fun of it. Because *the endgame should be fun*. I joke often about how **Titanfall 2** could take place in an empty white room where you shoot at floating targets, because the gunplay is straight up just that fun. I wasn't going through an endgame when I played that, or **Halo 2**, or **Star Fox Assault**[^1]. Videogames are rotting peoples' brains, but not the way your average boomer conservative thinks. It's through """progression""" systems and treadmills that turn your favorite game into a job. I know this isn't a hot take, but I was just sort of shocked when my friend hit me with "I don't want to play **Darktide** because it has no endgame." Please play games to have fun. That's why they exist!!! [^1]: Corneria City, vehicles on, snipers and missles launchers only